Roundabout Pre-School

Newsletter

October 2015

Well can you believe that September is over already?! All of our children are real ‘professionals’ at being part of Roundabout life and it’s only October!!

I’d like to once again take the opportunity to congratulate our children on their fantastic behaviour, particularly when they come into Roundabout to begin a session. It always heartens us when we see that our children feel happy and supported to come into Roundabout. We are beginning to see some lovely bonds forming between new children and their peers, as well as the adults who care for them. For us at Roundabout, positive relationships is one of the most important factors in the care that we provide.

Thank you to the many parents who have taken the time to come into setting to discuss their child’s starting point summary with their key person. These initial assessments of our new starters are absolutely vital in ensuring that we are getting to know our children effectively, and therefore able to meet their developmental needs as the term progresses. As a setting we place a huge emphasis on gaining as much knowledge as we can about the children’s lives at home, and without parental input we could not possibly make an accurate judgement on what our children’s interests and abilities are. Parents are continually asked for their input throughout the term and we are so grateful at how forthcoming you can be. We have added a new section to our termly summaries/assessments which is titled ‘Supporting future learning and development at home’. We hope that we can compile this section in conjunction with parents to provide our children with continuity in learning and development between home life and life at Roundabout.

Along similar lines, a number of our practitioners are working on ‘All About Me’ books with their children. Several recent educational studies have shown that the language children use when looking at pictures/ photos of places, people or objects that are special to them, can be far more advanced than when looking at, for example, unfamiliar story books. So please provide us with photos of family, home, bedroom, favourite toys, etc (nothing is too random if it is special to your child) if you can and we will set about making an All About Me book for as many of our children as we can. All About Me books can also provide comfort to children should they need it.

We LOVE Leeds!!

Under the new Ofsted Inspection Framework (which came into effect from September this year), all early years settings must show a commitment to ‘Promoting British Values’. These values should include sharing, taking turns, politeness, understanding and accepting difference and being able to make decisions and choices. We know that such values are already entrenched within our practice but we would also like to further promote these values by focusing on what an interesting and diverse city the City of Leeds is. This would include looking at how we all ‘share’ the city in different ways, as well as illustrating what the children’s understanding and acceptance of difference is. We would like your help / input with this!!! If there is somewhere in or around Leeds that your child really likes to visit please let us know. We would love to discuss these places with your child, and create a display of all the different activities that our children get up to in and around the Leeds area. As always, photos would be fabulous prompts for us to use, and they really interest the other children. So, if you have photos of your child at their favourite place please bring them in. Please remember it doesn’t have to be anywhere really adventurous – the local park can be just as valued by your child as a well-known tourist attraction.

Lunchboxes

Please could we ask for all lunchboxes to be labelled on the outside – we often have several duplicate lunchboxes and clear labelling helps to avoid confusion, amongst adults as well as children!!! It is also extremely important to us all that our children are receiving a balanced diet. We would ask that parents only put one sweet/treat item into lunchboxes to aid us in promoting healthy eating choices. If you have any issues, or are unsure about what to put into your child’s lunchbox then please don’t hesitate to speak to Kate or Carrie.

Children’s Learning Journals

Please remember that these important files are as much your documents as ours. You will always find them out on top of the desk to the right of the door as you walk in. Please feel free to look through them or take them home to add to them yourselves (we would ask that you let your child’s key person know if you are going to take them).

ROUNDABOUT AGM – 15TH OCTOBER!!!

Please could you all put some serious consideration into coming along to Roundabout’s Annual General Meeting and joining our voluntary parent committee. WE NEED YOU!!! Our committee are an extremely friendly bunch, without whom we simply could not exist in the form that we do (a registered charity). Being on the committee means that you would be helping to make decisions that directly affect the children under our care. For example, we go to the committee when faced with all decisions on how we should improve our resources and make new purchases so it really is a fun, but important role. Some of our current sub-committee no longer have children in the setting, but have been extremely kind in staying on to ensure continuity into the new academic year (or years in some of their cases!!) Now really is the time to allow them to step down so that our committee remains as relevant as possible to the children that we currently care for. Without a committee, Roundabout would not be able carry on in its present form, so please get involved. If you would like to know any more about becoming a member of our committee then please speak to Kate or Carrie.